[3][1] In 2013, a proposal by Nepal to the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) to have Lhotse Middle (and Lhotse Shar) designated as standalone eight-thousanders was not successful due a perceived lack of topographic prominence.

[5] Lhotse Middle was first climbed in 2001 by three groups of Russian climbers.

[3] The first ascent was made on 23 May 2001 by Eugeny Vinogradsky, Sergei Timofeev, Alexei Bolotov, and Petr Kuznetsov; while on May 24, an ascent was made by Nikolai Zhilin, Gleb Sokolov, and Yuri Koshelenko.

The Russian expedition was led by Nikolay Cherny and Victor Kozlov.

[6] Several members of the 2001 expedition had attempted to reach the summit in 1997, but bad weather forced them to abandon the attempt, and one climber, Vladimir Bashkirov, died during the descent.